Gods and Monsters
by wouldtheywriteasongforyou
Summary: The prince fought valiantly. He slayed the dragon. The princess cried for days. She loved that dragon. : Lana Del Rey song. Diavora. Non-bestiality. (ch 2 and 3 are being revised and re-posted.)
1. (once upon a time)

**Author's Note:  
Disclaimer: Maleficent and Lana Del Rey's song "Gods and Monsters" are not mine.**

I'm thinking this story will be five chapters at most. Probably less, though. Short and sweet which is just the way I like it :)

**"You be the prince, Phillip, and I'll be the princess."**

* * *

**Gods and Monsters**

**i. once upon a time.  
**

[-]

She's seven and wears a crown of wildflowers upon her head. "You be the prince, Phillip, and I'll be the princess," she tells her best friend as they play in the cliff-side meadow by her cottage.

"All right," he agrees easily. He would do anything for Aurora. "Do you want me to slay some dragons for you?"

"Is that what princes do?"

Phillip nods with all the sincerity of an eight year old who wants to protect his princess from harm. He picks up a nearby stick and pretends it is his sword. "No harm will come to you, Princess Aurora," he vows and slashes the air as he vanquishes the imaginary dragons. "Not when you have me to protect you."

"Only the mean, evil dragons!" she amends her original request as she watches with wide eyes as he stabs and rakes the air. "Don't hurt them, Phillip."

"Not even to save you?"

She bites her lip indecisively. "Okay," she tells him. "But only if you absolutely _have_ to." She dances around the meadow as she enjoys the late afternoon sunshine. "I'm not a damsel in distress," Aurora tells him matter-of-factly. "I can protect myself, too."

He smiles. "I know," he says, his brown eyes soft and reassuring. "You're brave and scary."

"Scary!" Aurora collapses into a fit of giggles upon hearing that adjective. "Me?"

Phillip indulges her. He makes an absurdly frightened face and pretends to cower in fear. "Eek!"

"You squeaked!" Aurora giggles harder. "I made you squeak!"

"So you did," he grins, relaxing his face into his typical easy-going smile.

Aurora rolls through the grass and wildflowers towards him. "Race you back to the cottage," she dares him with an impish gleam in her cerulean eyes.

"You're on," he replies. He scrambles to a standing position so that she does not have an unfair advantage over him.

"On you mark, get set – hey! Phillip, you're cheating! I didn't say 'go', yet!"

"It's not cheating unless you get caught!" he laughs, his voice already growing fainter as he puts more distance between Aurora and himself.

She shakes some of the grass blades out of her blonde ringlets and then chases after him. "Phillip!" Aurora yells. "Not fair!"

"You're just mad because you didn't do it first!"

She laughs because he's right and he knows it. Aurora dashes through the forest and the undergrowth, keeping his chestnut hair in sight at all times lest she became lost. The cottage isn't too far away, now.

Overhead, a midnight black crow squawks as he flies and keeps pace with the little girl who runs with the flowers streaming down her hair.

[-]


	2. ii

**Author's Note:  
Disclaimer: This is ch2 2.0**

No, your eyes have not deceived you: I really did post a new chapter. Get excited. xoxo

**"Aren't you a pretty bird?"**

* * *

**Gods and Monsters**

**ii.**

[-]

Aurora's curious about the world around her. She doesn't know why but she has this strange feeling that there is so much more to life than her tiny cottage hidden away in the woods. After her day in the meadow with Phillip, she continuously asks her aunts about what lies beyond her meadow and the forest's edge. For the most part, they give her vague and cryptic answers before changing the subject. At dinner, however, she manages to glean a few morsels of information from her aunts.

"So," Aurora begins. She continues to casually ask about the outside world in between bites of what her aunts call "faerie food". "What's it like where you're from?"

"Oh, there's all sorts of wonderful things!" Aunt Flittle says before Aunt Knotgrass has the chance to elbow her.

"Castles and beasties and – " Aunt Thistletwit is silenced by Aunt Knotgrass's hand over her mouth.

"Nothing, dearie," Aunt Knotgrass says with a tight smile. "There's nothing at all."

x

She waits for Phillip to come by the next afternoon and even finds a few sticks for him to use to slay dragons. She wants to tell him about her aunts' odd behaviour and what they could possibly mean by it. Perhaps he'd even like to go explore and search for answers with her.

He doesn't come. Not today or the day after or the day after that day.

"I guess princes only exist in the storybooks," she sighs mournfully, twirling one of the sticks in her right hand. It hurts her naive, trusting heart that the one person she thought she could count on turned out to be as callous as everyone else.

A bird chirps as he flies down from the treetops to land on the split-rail fence Aurora is leaning on. Her bare toes wriggle in the dirt and she props her chin up using her left arm. "Aren't you a pretty bird?" she smiles upon seeing the glossy-feathered crow.

He warbles his appreciation and ducks his head underneath one of his wings.

"And shy, too!" Aurora laughs. "No need to be afraid of me, pretty bird. I won't hurt you."

The crow's head peeps out as if he's determining the merit of her words. He hesitantly hops closer to her. Aurora has one finger stretched out to pet the feathers on the top of his silky head when:

"Rory! Dinner time!" Aunt Thistletwit calls from inside the cottage.

Aurora's face falls in disappointment and brings back her outstretched hand. "Goodbye, pretty bird," she bids adieu in a sad, wistful tone. Aurora twirls her stick as if it were a magic wand. "I wish you were human. You wouldn't leave me, would you?" She nods ruefully and wiggles her fingers in goodbye. "I hope you come back, pretty bird," she tells him before dashing into her cottage where her aunts are waiting impatiently for her.

[-]


End file.
